Cognitive Mapping – Wayfinding through our World

Kevin Lynch, in his seminal book, The Image of the City (1960), reported that people could mentally map and understand their environments in very predictable ways. He found that mental maps (maps sketched by a average person from memory) had five common elements:

paths, streets, sidewalks, trails, and other channels in which people travel;

edges, perceived boundaries such as walls, buildings, and shorelines;

districts, relatively large sections of the city distinguished by some identity or character;